Untangling the legal and political history of religion from the cultural fabric of Canada.

From before Confederation to the present day, religion has been one of the most contentious issues in Canadian public life. In Fighting over God, Janet Buckingham surveys a vast array of religious conflicts, exploring both their political aspects and the court cases that were part of their resolution.

While topics such as the Manitoba Schools Crisis and debates about Sunday shopping are familiar territory, Buckingham focuses on lesser-known conflicts such as those over the education of Doukhobor and Mennonite children and the banning of the Jehovah's Witness religion under the Defence of Canada Regulations during the Second World War. Subjects are explored thematically with chapters on the history of religious broadcasting, education, freedom of expression, religious practices, marriage and family, and religious institutions.

Contentious issues about religious accommodation are not going away. Fighting over God cites over six hundred legal cases, across nearly four centuries, to provide a rich context for the ongoing social debate about the place of religion in our increasingly secular society.

“Janet Epp Buckingham’s research is impressively comprehensive and detailed. She is able to present facts and examples as narratives in both a geographically and historically complete way. The reader has the sense that all the ‘legal moments’ of religious life in Canada have been captured and collected here.” Shauna Van Praagh, Faculty of Law, McGill University“Buckingham generally supports dialogue in the solving of problems rather than the blunt instrument of legal procedure and calls for the whole question [of religious freedom and of secularism] to be publicly debated. This is an admirable book. Lawyers and historians especially should read it.” British Journal of Canadian Studies

Janet Epp Buckingham is associate professor of political studies and history at Trinity Western University.

Acknowledgments xiiiIntroduction: Development of Legal Protection for Religious Freedom 3